“A jury gathers in Manhattan to select a memorial for the
victims of a devastating terrorist attack. Their fraught deliberations
complete, the jurors open the envelope containing the anonymous winner’s
name—and discover he is an American Muslim. Instantly they are cast into
roiling debate about the claims of grief, the ambiguities of art, and the
meaning of Islam. Their conflicted response is only a preamble to the
country’s. The memorial’s designer is an enigmatic, ambitious architect named
Mohammad Khan. His fiercest defender on the jury is its sole widow, the
self-possessed and mediagenic Claire Burwell. But when the news of his
selection leaks to the press, she finds herself under pressure from outraged
family members and in collision with hungry journalists, wary activists,
opportunistic politicians, fellow jurors, and Khan himself—as unknowable as he
is gifted. In the fight for both advantage and their ideals, all will bring the
emotional weight of their own histories to bear on the urgent question of how
to remember, and understand, a national tragedy. In this deeply humane novel,
the breadth of Amy Waldman’s cast of characters is matched by her startling
ability to conjure their perspectives. A striking portrait of a fractured city
striving to make itself whole, The Submission is a piercing and resonant novel
by an important new talent..”
